How To Get Paid For Your Music

When The Going Gets Weird The Weird Turn Pro

Hunter S. Thompson

Consumers still want to support music. Listeners just want something special. And on their own terms. Thats why many artists have started giving albums away for freebut with extra goodies on top.

How you sell your album or give it away has to be just as creative as the music itself. So be creativewith how you get your album out there. Sell an experience, not a thing.

2. Fiverr

Fiverr is one of the fastest growing places for musicians to sell their music.

Its an online community where people can sell their services starting at $5including the sale of beats,songs and other music related services for many purposes.

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Make Money With Live Streams

During the lockdown from the pandemic, musicians turned to live streaming to perform for their fans. While traditional live shows and touring are coming back, online shows let you reach fans from around the world in areas that you might not be able to get to while touring.

Theyre also a great way to generate extra income by selling tickets to live streams and through online tip jars. Bandzoogle members generated nearly $400,000 from live stream ticket sales and tips just in the first 6 months of the pandemic.

Get On Streaming Playlists

Many streaming services offer playlists to users or algorithmic recommendations. Each service operates differently, so optimizing for specific streaming services may come with its own set of rules.

Since Apple Music and Spotify are the two most popular streaming services, they offer a higher degree of reach, so theyre the most important ones to optimize for.

How to get your music on Spotify playlists

Spotify has a suite of tools available to help artists optimize their profiles for the platform. Start by claiming your profile. From there, youll be eligible for Spotifys algorithmic playlists.

While theres no guarantee that youll show up in peoples feeds, over time, as more listeners subscribe and save your music, youll become more likely to be seen.

Spotifys algorithm evaluates your music based on your profile activity and its users activity on your profile.

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How Spotify’s Streaming Royalties Work

Royalties are the payments that an artist earns from streams. Spotify royalties are specifically distributed from the net revenue collected from ads and Premium subscription fees.

Artists are paid monthly. When Spotify pays artists, they tally the total number of streams for each of an artist’s songs, and determine who owns each song and who distributes it. First, the rights holders are paid. Next, the distributor is paid . And finally, you’re paid.

“Each DSP has its payout, and it’s your distribution company’s responsibility to get the correct payout. They help set you up and walk you through how much you’re being paid per stream, and the royalty payout process,” Pain said.

Independent artists and their managers typically use distribution services like Tunecore or Distrokid to get their music onto Spotify. Bigger artists signed to major labels go through an in-house process.

“Now that there are more distribution outlets, that sector of the industry is starting to scale. Meaning the cost is starting to lower,” said Sharlea Brookes-Keyes, manager for Boston rapper Vintage Lee. “Tunecore does 100% royalties , but you have to pay an annual fee of $50 for an album and $10 for a single.”

Do You Need A Bank Account For Your Band To Get Paid From Spotify

No. Although it is much easier to receive your royalties as a direct deposit into your specified bank account, distributors such as TuneCore make their payments to artists using Payoneer, which has four options to payment: PayPal, Direct Bank Transfer, Pre-paid Mastercard, or a paper check for those without a bank account . Payoneer charges a $1 fee for processing your withdrawal and making the payment.

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Theres Tons Of Ways To Spend A Bit To Make A Lot

Pretty much everything on this list is going to take a bit of capital to get goingmaking t-shirts, pressingrecords and all the other obvious costs.

But the easiest and best way to invest in your music is to make sure its sounding the absolute best before you start shopping it around.

Invest in good audio mastering. Its essential to make sure your music is going to sound perfect in allplayback situations.

6. Youtube IDs

Youtube is the #1 music streaming service on the internet. It beats iTunes, Spotify, and Tidal for totalstreams no problem.

If your music gets uploaded you should be getting paid for it. Youtube has a a system called Content IDthat finds exactly where your song is being used on Youtube.

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If it finds your music somewhere and you are the copyright owner you can choose to monetize it byplacing ads on the video. Its like having your own little Youtube booking agent.

Create A Release Strategy

There are so many ways of going about this. And yet, its astounding the number of artists who dont have a release strategy. They just wing it most of the time.

It doesnt need to be anything complicated. But you should be thinking about how youre going to get your music out into the world and the exact steps youre going to be taking.

For instance, you could release a single on streaming platforms before releasing your full album. That way, your fans would have no choice but to listen to it on their favorite streaming app. If they like the single, you should get a good number of plays. A month later, you could come out with the full album on CD . Again, if your fans enjoyed the single, now they have no choice but to buy the album because its not available on Spotify or Apple Music. Finally, six months later , you make it available on streaming sites in anticipation for another round of streams.

This is just an example of what you could do. There are plenty of other viable release strategies. The point is to have one that helps you build the biggest momentum and get more plays.

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The Shopping Experience What Is Yours Like

We dont want to equate music sales to buying electronics, shoes, or clothes. The point I want to make is that the consumption of your music needs to be a polished and effortless experience. Think about the process of buying an Apple product, or shopping on Amazon. If those dont appeal to you, think of your favorite brand and why you like buying from them over and over again. Go through the process of discovering and buying your bands brand and products. Is it ideal? Does your best stuff come up first? Did you find the track you want coming up first? Whats preventing people from discovering or buying your music and merchandise? Is it the algorithm? The price? Somebody elses content? Optimize the discovery and conversion process for your band.

Understanding The Different Type Of Royalties

To understand how to make money on Spotify, you have to understand how money is paid out in the music industry. To break it down roughly, there are two sources of income available to you from Spotify:

• Royalties from the master rights in the form of income from streams. If you self-release, these are directly transferred to your digital music distributor.
• Revenue from mechanical reproduction or performance rights paid to the composer, lyricist, and publisher of each song via a collection society such as BMI , ASCAP , PRS , GEMA , SACEM , SGAE or SUISA or publisher, if they have one. In the past, this came from the sale of physical recordings, but nowadays private streams are also included. If youre not sure what collection agencies are in your country, check out this this list of international collection societies.

How do you know what is what? Take the example of Whitney Houstons I Will Always Love You. Whitney recorded the song with Sony Music, her label, which owns the mastering rights and therefore receives the royalties for streams of the hit song. Likewise, Dolly Parton, who was the songwriter and lyricist, receives the mechanical and public performance royalties via her collection society or publisher.

In some countries, platforms such as Spotify have to assign a part of their revenues directly to the collecting societies, such as SACEM in France or GEMA in Germany.

• Performance fees
• Fees from mechanical reproduction

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The 3 Step Process To Make Money With Your Music

It all comes down to three simple steps.

First, we need to locate fans of our genre.

This is where social media actually can be a huge help.

Some genres have large and thriving online communities that you can become part of.

Other genres dont, and youll have to look a little harder to find where fans hang out.

For some genres, the only reliable way to reach fans online is through paid advertising. Dont worry though its not as hard as it seems, and theres a very straightforward process you can use to dial things in. Once you know what to look for, its still relatively easy to turn a profit.

Once weve found where fans are hanging out, we need to attract signups to your list.

Yep. Its all about growing YOUR LIST.

Aside from your songs, your email list is the most valuable asset you have.

Dont send people to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, or anyplace else.

Send them to a landing page

Where youll give them a sample of your music

And make them an exclusive offer for some of your best work

FREE

In exchange for their email address.

(BTW, are you choking on that word free? Youre definitely not alone! But you need to trust millions of successful online entrepreneurs in thousands of different markets

And offer something valuable for free in return for the privilege of gaining access to someones inbox!)

And what should you offer?

Your best work. The songs and/or videos youre proudest of. Most importantly:

Whats this proven process?

Easy:

Creating An Electronic Press Kit

When you start reaching out to venues, theres a chance they may ask for an electronic press kit .

An EPK is a digital collection of documents, videos, images, and, of course, your music. Venues use EPKs to get a quick overview of your brand. You can create a press kit using design tools like Canva, Adobe Spark, or the PressKitBuilder.

What to include in your electronic press kit:

• Links to your songs on Spotify and Apple Music

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How Do You Make Money In Music Publishing

Have you ever wondered why the main songwriter in one of those megastar bands can afford to buy a mansion when the other members in the band can only afford a small house?

The answer is music publishing.

If you write or co-write a song, you are owed royalties every time that song is played in a public setting. This includes radio, TV, movies, restaurants, venues, and more. You are also owed a publishing royalty every time someone purchases your music

Music publishing has the potential to generate big money for songwriters, composers, and lyricists. If youve written a song and havent signed away the rights to someone else, then YOU are the publisherwhich means that all royalties collected for that song should be paid to you.

How Much Can You Make With Fusioncash

You will get a $5 reward for signing up.

You will have to accumulate your earnings to $25 before you can cash out.

The payment is usually by PayPal, direct deposit, and check. The website will always pay its members the 20th of every month.

You can also make money with FusionCash in many other ways such as watching videos, referring friends and family members and doing surveys.

Your earnings from a different source can surely add up in the shortest possible time. This is another way to make money listening to music via FusionCash.

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Freelance Recording Mixing And Mastering

Are you well versed in recording, mixing, or mastering?

Thats special knowledge that many producers dont have.

If you have the time and expertise to work on someone elses project, you should consider finding freelance work as an audio engineer.

LANDR Network offers professional artists the opportunity to sell their skills online.

You just have to get approved to create a profile, and youll start getting freelance job requests sent your way in no time!

LANDR Network takes care of everything around payments and it makes it simple to share your finished work or receive feedback.

While it takes a lot of hands-on experience to gain these skills, if you are a skilled producer of your own music, you will bring a lot of value to someone elses project.

How Does Spotify Pay Artists

Spotify does not directly pay artists who are on their platform. You also cannot upload your music directly to Spotify. The middle man in this situation is the music distributor, such as TuneCore, DistroKid or CDBaby. These websites are the conduit between the artist and Spotify, and they are the ones who receive your royalties.

With your e-mail, create an account and then upload your songs for release. You are able to choose between dozens and dozens of well-known and barely heard of streaming services, of which Spotify is only one. Spotify allows for songs to be released a week or so after uploading, but thats considered rushing it. Most artists plan their release carefully and upload the songs two or so months in advance so they can take advantage of pre-order promotion and releasing a single before the whole album comes out.

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How To Make Money With Music Online

Posted by Dave Cool on Apr 29, 2020 in: Music Career Advice, Selling Music Online, COVID-19 Resources for Musicians

Virtually nothing else in history has shaped the music industry more dramatically than the internet. But as much as its played an integral role in countless musicians careers, the coronavirus crisis has now put us in a position where, for the first time ever, the internet is our only option to reach music fans.

The unfortunate reality we have to face is that it could be quite a while before live performances, tours, and festivals will be back in full swing. If gigging has made up a good chunk of your income up until this point, its crucial that you start laying the groundwork now to make money from your music online.

The good news is that once we come out on the other side of this pandemic, all the effort you put in now to supplement your income will continue to pay off over time. So how can you make money with music online? Here are some of the best ways to get started.

Make Your Music Available Through Online Music Retailers

Fans dont buy as many digital downloads as they used to, but they can still be a meaningful revenue source for DIY musicians.

Distributing your music to major online retailers like iTunes and Amazon helps you come across as a more legitimate artist, gives you access to detailed analytics, and gives your fans a convenient way to support you.

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Music Videos Offer Both Direct & Indirect Monetization Opportunities

Music videos, for better or for worse, are largely misunderstood, and there arent too many people either able or qualified to explain the many ways they can make money. There is more to this than you may have initially thought.

The most important thing to understand is that music videos offer both direct and indirect monetization opportunities. We will be looking at both in this guide.

While there are a limited number of direct revenue opportunities, indirect opportunities are plenty, so the list that follows shouldnt be considered comprehensive.

As with any endeavor, if you dont have a strategy behind it, its unlikely you will derive the greatest benefit from your efforts. But if you determine what it is you hope to accomplish and come up with a plan for its achievement, youll set yourself up for a better experience overall.

So, choose which revenue streams you want to pursue and focus on them.

How Many Submissions Do I Need To Earn Money

The submission tool is super simple and enables users to sign up as a guest or as a Music Gateway user, which enables a much faster submission process for them in the future. Each submission counts towards your monthly submissions target, which is the currency we use to reward the curator. Below is the current earning model:

**200 IS THE MINIMUM AMOUNT YOU MUST ACHIEVE

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How To Find Paid Gigs For Musicians

Playing live is not only a good way to generate income, but also one of the best ways to build an audience. Gig fans always win out over social media fans in terms of how valuable they are to your music career, since theyve proven themselves willing to pay money to watch live music.

Assuming you havent bought a tour bus yet, youll need to find good local venues to play if you want to build an audience of real live music fans. One way of doing this is through gig-booking apps and websites like ReverbNation Gig Finder.

Gig-booking sites and platforms are more accessible, which means many of the shows tend to be corporate events targeted toward a broader audience. These performances can be very lucrative, but keep in mind that theyre less valuable in terms of building a sustainable audience.

Thinking long term, you want to build relationships with local venues in your scene. This is where your networking skills will come in handy. Start small and find venues that are open to new acts.